Jerome Petion de Villeneuve

Jerome Petion de Villeneuve (3 January 1756-18 June 1794) was Mayor of Paris from 1791 to 1792, succeeding Jean Sylvain Bailly and preceding Philibert Borie.

Biography
Jerome Petion was born in Chartres, France on 3 January 1756, and he wrote a magazine before the French Revolution, becoming known as a reformer for attacking primogeniture and clerical celibacy. He became a radical leader of the National Assembly at the start of the revolution in 1789, and he worked together with Jacques Pierre Brissot and Honore Gabriel Riqueti de Mirabeau to push for a constitutional monarchy. In 1791, he was elected mayor after Jean Sylvain Bailly left office following the Champ de Mars massacre, and he showed his republican and anti-monarchist views. In 1792, he was elected to the National Convention, so he resigned as Mayor of Paris and became a member of the Girondins due to his opposition to Maximilien Robespierre. In March 1793, he was elected to the Committee of Public Safety, and he was forced to flee from Paris on 2 June 1793 after the Girondins were proscribed by the Jacobin Club. On 18 June 1794, the bodies of Petion and Francois Buzot were found in a field, half-eaten by wolves, after they had killed themselves.